


Stray Wolf

by Dyleon



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Angst, Daddy Issues, Death, Everyone is a Musician, Hurt Derek, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Little Shit Isaac, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Musician Derek, Musician Stiles, POV Alternating, Panic Attacks, Past Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Queerphobia, Scars, Slow Build, but everyone has their own issues really
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-13
Updated: 2015-08-16
Packaged: 2018-04-09 04:51:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4334549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dyleon/pseuds/Dyleon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Music had been composer and conductor Derek’s best friend for a very long time. It was his anchor, his best therapist and the reason why he kept going on for so long. Or at that was until he met Stiles – a violinist Derek didn’t know whether their meeting was a blessing or a curse. But maybe it was both.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A

**Author's Note:**

> This story actually was planned ages ago since I've seen a street musician who played violin, and of course, because of my love for musicians, I just couldn't think of anything else expect of Stiles, playing the violin. The main idea pretty much changed its concept over and over again and got a bunch of (mostly angsty) ideas mixed into it. And the first tag of this fic basically tells you what it is. It's a human AU where I just thought what could have been if everything happened, but well... everyone as humans! So now after years I've been planning, here it is and I hope you will all enjoy it!
> 
> A big thank you for [Brittany](http://www.darkenednights.tumblr.com/) for being an awesome beta and to a bunch of people I've hit up to look over this fic in the [SterekWriters Network](http://sterekwriters.tumblr.com/). You guys are amazing and I'm so thankful for your help. <3
> 
> Please be aware of the tags to avoid content that could trigger you, thank you.

[Tumblr](http://dyleon.tumblr.com/) | [Soundtrack](http://8tracks.com/dyleon/stray-wolf) | [Manips](http://dyleon.deviantart.com/gallery/55278504/Devious-Folder)

 

 

_John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, June 6, 2012_

 

The stewardesses were going through the lines and checking the baggage before the safety instructions started on the little screen in front of him. Instead of actually paying attention to the video, Derek put his headphones on and turned the music to max volume.

His gaze hovered over to Erica three seats away before he sank more into his seat. Erica smiled back at him and looked to the others in the back.

Isaac was sitting with Boyd one row behind him, probably getting on their nerves again, so they would get thrown out of the plane and Derek would have to face Marcus’ stupid face back in New York again.

He’d just had a very upsetting phone call with Marcus before he had entered the plane, so he just wanted to forget about it and relax.

He tried to enjoy his music as long as he could before someone would tell him to turn off all of his electronic devices, although he already had changed his phone to airplane mode.

A few minutes after an announcement he hadn’t paid attention to, the plane slowly started rolling to its starting position. Derek looked out of the small window at the buildings in the back while the plane was rolling.

It was odd to see New York for the last time before he would leave. He didn’t leave New York very often. In fact, after Laura had moved back to Beacon Hills with her fiancé, Derek had only visited them once.

Sometimes, Derek felt incredibly stupid for moving to New York.

New York was big and never seemed to rest. Right after the fire, it was foolish of him to think that moving to Marcus would be a good idea. Hell, just _wanting_ to move to him felt foolish now. But back at the time, it had felt like the right thing to do.

Although Marcus hadn’t been in contact with the rest of the family, he still had gotten a letter from the police department when the fire had happened and since then kind of had been trying to get in contact again.

It had turned out that he’d lived not far from where Laura and her family had in New York.

Derek and Laura had literally switched their locations. After Marcus had tried to get back in touch with the family, Derek had thought to give him a second chance and moved to New York while Laura hadn’t wanted to hear anything of Marcus and moved straight to Beacon Hills.

City life was not for Derek whatsoever. It had been a place where he could drown his sorrows about the loss of his family under parties and alcohol, but that hadn't lasted long.

He had sometimes told himself to go back just like Laura did, but after he’d met Jennifer, he just couldn’t leave New York anymore. He wanted so much with her, saw so much in her. And still, it only had been a small note from her and then Jennifer was just gone and dumped him out of nowhere, leaving him all alone.

He didn’t want to think about it, because the wounds were still fresh, and punching the seat in front of him would only bring him trouble.  He buried his face in his hands and groaned into them instead. He shot a small look to Erica after he had pulled his face out of his hands again.

He saw Erica’s lips moving, but couldn’t hear anything she was saying under the loud music from his headphones, which she apparently noticed because she then just weakly smiled back at him and turned her head back to Boyd.

He looked away again and towards his feet, trying to cover up his headphones with his hand as the stewardesses were going through the lines for the last time. One stewardess still noticed his headphones, though, and asked him with a smile that seemed rather fake than real to turn off his phone.

As all stewardesses were sitting on their seats near the doors, the turbines jumped on and the plane began to pick up pace, making Derek’s seat vibrate.

He closed his eyes and leaned back into his seat, both hands on the arms of his chair. He tuned out the sound of the motors around him until the feeling of grounding faded away.

Five minutes after they had already lost physical contact with the ground, Derek managed to fall asleep.

When he woke up, he was covered in sweat. Since Jennifer had left, he hadn’t really been sleeping that well.

He was shivering and it was just damn cold and hot at the same time. His blanket was half on his legs, half on the floor and his sticky sweat made it impossible to feel any improvement when he tried to pull it up to cover himself again.

He felt lost for a moment, and the fact that the seats were as comfortable as hard rocks didn’t help him with the situation at all because, let’s face it, flying is awful.

He looked out of the window to get a feeling for where he was and, maybe, stop feeling dizzy. The sea was shimmering in the back while he tried to wake his legs up.

The coast could only mean that Beacon Hills was not far away. Although this town was called Beacon _Hills_ , there was more sea sight and beaches than hills around. The town was mostly called that way because of its big lighthouse.

Derek remembered playing at the bays and beaches when he had been younger.

His mother even used to have a saying about the ocean in Beacon Hills.

_You can never escape the ocean in Beacon Hills._

It literally meant that wherever you were in Beacon Hills, you would be able to hear the ocean. But of course, that wasn’t true. His mom had only said that because they had been living in the forest near the seashore.

Derek was torn out of his daydream when he felt a sudden pull at his seat, and for one moment, he actually thought the plane was going to crash and they were all going to die so close to their destination.

When he looked up, the first thing he saw was Isaac’s head. Isaac was literally _mounting_ Derek’s seat.

“Okay, this might seem a little weird, but can I maybe take a nap on your lap?” Isaac asked.

Derek scowled at him.

Boyd, next to Isaac, only shrugged as Isaac continued: “Boyd won’t let me. And if I don’t get more space for my freaking legs, I’ll never be able to sleep.”

Derek lifted his head in understanding, forming an “O” with his mouth. He almost forgot that Isaac got edgy in small spaces.

That Isaac actually had agreed to come to Beacon Hills with him was a miracle. Not only because he would have had to get into a plane for the first time, which he actually swore to never do and stay in New York for the rest of his life, but also because he usually seemed pretty uninterested in other people’s businesses.

“Just wait a little longer. We’re almost there,” Derek decided to say, after all, because Beacon Hills wasn’t that far away anymore and it wouldn’t be enough time to fall asleep anyway.

“Almost. Isn’t. Nearly. Enough,” Isaac gritted out, making a dramatic pause after every word. “I need more space. _Now_.”

“What about distracting yourself? You could play that, I don’t know, stupid ‘Bubble Crush’ thing you love so damn much on your phone.”

“First of all; it’s ‘Candy Crush’, Derek. _Still_ ,” Isaac snorted, shaking his head while Derek’s eyes almost rolled out of his face, “and second of all; I haven’t got any lives anymore. But you’re right. You can still give me your pho–”

“No,” Derek cut him right off, actually pushing his phone deeper into his jeans pocket. “Last time I lent you my phone, you started to look through all of my private pictures. Not gonna happen this time.”

“Oh, come on, Derek! You don’t have to feel ashamed for taking dick-pics. Every guy does that. Besides, they weren’t even _that_ disappointing.”

“They were _not_ dick-pics!” Derek hissed– maybe a little too loud because the old lady in row twenty three suddenly shot him a dirty look right after that. _Isaac definitely doesn’t deserve to sleep on my lap now_ , Derek muttered in his head. “I was just taking pictures of the towel.”

“Of course, you were…”

_Was there a way to throw Isaac out of the plane? Like now?_

“And also, they were for Jen and not anyone else,” Derek added.

“Well, since you’re not together with her anymore, it shouldn’t be a problem, then. I mean, unless you’re taking them just for fun now, which would be pretty–”

“Isaac,” Boyd fortunately interrupted him then. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Derek wasn’t sure why Boyd only said something now, but it might be because Isaac was stupid enough to mention Jennifer in front of Derek because, unlike Isaac, Boyd was a _helpful_ friend.

“Sometimes I wonder if you really just turned eighteen and not, I don’t know, _eight_.”

“Ey!” Isaac protested, failing at not looking totally offended. “Age is nothing but a stupid number.”

Boyd huffed. “Yeah, even ten year olds are smarter than you.”

Boyd clearly got that point there, so Isaac shut up even when he was rolling his eyes.

The announcement that the plane would be landing soon echoed through the whole plane. The voice of the announcer seemed very familiar. If Derek didn’t know better, he would think that it was Jennifer’s voice.

It turned out that it was only the voice of the stewardess who had told him to take off his headphones earlier.

He really needed to get Jennifer out of his head. At least for now.

 

 

“God, finally out of this metal box!” Isaac yelled as he ran through the exit of the plane, pushing several other travelers aside.

Of course, Derek had to apologize to every single person for Isaac’s silly behavior. As if it wasn’t awkward enough that he had been one of the people who were clapping after the airplane landed.

Derek could barely hear his own thoughts because it was so crowded at the airport.

He had just gotten to baggage claim when he grabbed his phone and checked his texts.

After all, he had to do it some day.

He had plenty of calls from Marcus and some texts from Laura.

 

**[ marcus ]; ( 4 missed calls )**

**[ laura ]; God, Dad won’t stop calling me.**

**[ laura ]; Did you upset him or something?**

**[ laura ]; If yes, good.**

**[ laura ]; Can’t wait to see you again. <3**

 

His phone didn’t even ring once before the call was answered. “Derek?”

“Yes, it’s me,” Derek said, leaning back against a pole.

Laura was laughing. “You sure as hell upset your _loving_ father. The first thing he told me was that I should get you to travel back, so he could punch you in the face.”

“Sounds like him,” Derek huffed, although that probably had been actually the nearest thing to acting like a real father again from Marcus for the first time in years.

“Where are you right now? I can’t see you anywhere.”

Derek looked around for a moment, searching for signs and looking through the big windows next to him before he looked back to the others. They were all busy on their phones as well. “We just got from the baggage claim. Be there in a bit,” Derek said. “Is Oliver with you?”

“No, he’s home with the kids.”

Of course, Oliver would stay at home and watch the kids. After all, Derek was in a group of four– with Laura five. Their car would be full enough, even without Laura’s husband and their two kids. Derek was too exhausted to deal with children right away anyway. Plus, Isaac’s enough to deal with. A long car ride to do small talk and relax wouldn’t be too bad.

“Okay. See you in a bit,” Derek said.

“See you,” Laura replied and ended the call.

“You’re done?” a voice asked behind him then. It was Erica.

Derek turned away from the window to Erica, nodding.

She walked next to him and looked out of the huge airport’s wall of windows to the few hills this region had to offer. Derek followed her eyes and looked to the hills as well. “How long?” Erica asked after a while.

Derek knew exactly what she was asking about. “Five years,” he answered and crossed his arms.

Erica turned to him again, squinting her eyes because of the bright daylight which was coming from the window. “Long time, hmm?”

He leaned back, not looking away from the hills in the background. “It could have been more years,” he said, thinking of the time he could have had with Jennifer– if she hadn’t left all of the sudden.

He and Erica looked to Boyd who joined them at the window now. Isaac threw his arms around Derek and Boyd’s shoulders from behind right after. “So what’re we gonna do first?” Isaac asked, still hanging around their neck.

“I don’t know,” Derek said.

They just kept looking out of the window, not speaking a single word to each other. The others were just waiting for Derek to speak up again, but he didn’t. Boyd and Derek didn’t even care that Isaac was still wrapped around them.

There was only one thought that crossed the composer’s mind at the moment. He knew there were only two ways that this vacation could end; Either way, he would come back to New York with new goals and hopes for the future, feeling better, or he wouldn’t, which would be more likely.

 _Beacon Hills_ , Derek thought and breathed in the fresh sea air. _Long time no see_.

 

It was kind of a surprise to Derek when the first thing Laura did was throwing her arms around him in a big hug. It probably should have been predictable, but it still came so out of nowhere to Derek that he didn’t even have the time to open his arms, so that his arm basically was now awkwardly pressed against himself by Laura.

“Oh, my god, it’s been such a long time, grumpy bear,” his sister said, voice all muffled in Derek’s neck as she was squishing him.

“God, stop calling me that,” Derek said as he tried to release his right arm, but only because he could accept his sisters’ hug better that way. He hadn’t really signed up for being called “grumpy bear” in front of his adult friends – If you even could call Isaac an adult. “You know I’ve always hated that nickname.”

“And you’re as grumpy as always,” Laura said, which made Derek’s eyes roll at an instance, before she turned to the others. “I’m Laura. Derek’s sister,” she said while she was greeting Erica with a handshake and then switched over to Boyd, “I’ve heard so many things about you from Derek. I’m excited to finally meet you guys.”

“Oh, he _did_?” Isaac asked in response, shooting Derek a frown and holding his hand against his chest, which quickly turned into a mixture of being emotionally moved and the usual little-shit-face which made Derek want to punch him as he even asked: “What exactly did he say about me?”

“Enough to know that Liam and Kira will definitely love you,” Laura huffed as if it was something bad, literally answering for Derek.

Isaac smiled brightly in response as he shook Laura’s hand as well before they all started to head towards Laura’s car at the parking lot and made their way to Laura’s house.

 

The sound of his keys and the clacking of Laura’s heels echoed through the house. They just had arrived at Laura's house and everything seemed still, warm and quiet, but the yelling of Liam overtoned that silence immediately.

“Uncle Derek!” Liam yelled, walking towards him. Behind him, a little girl with black hair followed quietly, blushing as she looked up to Derek, and hid behind her father’s legs.

“Come here.” Derek pulled Liam close and messed up his hair, which was surely more difficult than the last time he did it. Liam had grown so much.

After Liam tried to teach him some weird handshake and Derek miserably failed at it, Derek crouched down, trying to look past Oliver’s legs to shoot the little girl a small smile. “Hey, there. I’m Derek.”

“H-hi...” the girl said shyly as she came out from behind her father’s legs, twiddling her dark hair with her fingers and blushed more.

Derek had seen many pictures and videos of Kira together with Liam. He hadn’t visited his sister in Beacon Hills in quite a while, so this was the first time Derek had really met Kira in person.

Since the fire, Derek had only seen Liam once when Laura and her family had come to visit him in New York for summer vacation two years ago.

The visit had been a blessing for Derek. Even though Liam looked far more like his father in almost every way and took his last name too, he couldn’t look into Liam’s eyes without recognizing his sister in them.

Kira had been adopted into the family a year ago when she was four. That’s why she didn’t look like her parents at all.

And Kira was young; five now to be more precisely.

Derek wasn’t sure how much time would pass until the next time he would get to see her again– if he even will get a chance to see Kira after this vacation. The last time he had visited Beacon Hills had been five years ago, so basically the year Kira had been born. After time, she probably wouldn’t even remember him.

“Hey, Derek,” Oliver said and at that, Derek got up again and accepted the hug Oliver was offering.

Oliver’s arm muscles and torso in their wholest were way firmer than they’d used to be. Oliver definitely had started training, he could tell. After all, Oliver needed it for his job.

Maybe Oliver was even stronger than him now. That, Derek couldn’t tell.

“Good to see you again, mate.”

“Same,” Derek replied. “You started training, huh?”

“Well, you know, Laura wants to have a little more _grip_ ,” Oliver said in his usual Scottish accent and started running his hand through his blond hair, laughing and blushing slightly. Oliver always had been very modest and not really the best to make dirty jokes.

Derek let out – or better _forced out_ – a small laugh and stepped back, making room for Laura to kiss her husband and hand over the baggage. She gave Oliver a clap on his butt to confirm her husband’s statement.

“God, stop before I’mma throw up because of old-people-love,” Liam groaned, turning away and trying to flee the sight by walking back into the living room, but failed as Derek held him in place and messed up his hair even more.

“Where do you think you’re going, little guy? We have a lot to catch up on.”

“ _Dereeeek_ ,” Liam whined in his grip, but was still amused. It gave Derek a second to look around the house again. It always had seemed so huge with these windows which were almost as high as the walls themselves, giving you the perfect view of the bay and ocean down the hill.

Derek had always envied over his sister’s house in all those pictures they’d sent him if he was honest. After all, he was living in a way-too-small apartment in New York. Everything else was just too expensive for him. And if he didn’t get more known in New York as a composer soon, he could literally forget a bigger living place.

He’d often forgotten how empty his apartment actually had been when Jennifer had been there with him.

Now without her, Derek once more realized what a dark and hopeless hole it was. He lived there together with Isaac since Isaac moved in two years ago, but Isaac was usually out at school or partying, doing his own stuff.

Maybe it had been one of the reasons Derek had wanted to visit Beacon Hills; to get away from this dark cave and see his family again.

“Who’s this?” Liam asked with a surprised face as Isaac stepped in, followed by Erica and Boyd. He already had managed to get out of Derek’s grip. “You’ve never told us about _that_ many visitors, Mom.”

“Oh, my god. They look even cuter in real life!” Isaac squealed, holding his hands onto his cheeks. “Hey, little guys! I’m–”

“A bad influence for children. Don’t listen to him,” Boyd said as he got into the house, trying to say it as dryly as possible, but still ending up laughing at his own joke at the same time Isaac shot him a dirty look. Boyd was probably thinking about the amount of times he had to drag Isaac out of a club because he’d been too drunk. Derek was sure that he would taint Liam if he ever was going to interact with him in any way.

“Er... Mom?” Liam tried again.

“Oh, these are Derek’s friends from New York. They’re going to stay here as long as your uncle does,” Laura said at the time Erica got inside as well.

“God, Isaac, at least try to stop embarrassing yourself around people,” Erica sighed, throwing her blond hair over her shoulder. Her annoyed and slightly tired attitude vanished as soon as she saw the children, though, and she smiled to both of them. “I’m Erica.”

“Hi,” Kira said again, but with a more confident and excited voice and eyes which seemed to suddenly sparkle. “You look very pretty. C-can we maybe be friends?”

Derek pretty much thought that did it for Erica because she awed, hugging Kira and lifting her up.

Oliver actually jumped a little forward at the sudden movement as if Erica was going to squish his daughter to death.

“You and me are so going to be best friends, okay?” Erica said enthusiastically, getting excited nodding back from Kira who was giggling wildly.

That was a way to become friends with Erica; giving her compliments. Or maybe it was just asking.

“We totally need to have kids, Verny,” Erica said as she turned to Boyd with Kira on her arm, and the way Boyd looked so confused and shocked all of the sudden and dropped the bags, reminded Derek of a puppy.

He always found it amusing when Erica called Boyd by his nickname from college. He did hate it when someone called him by nicknames, but only because he was always getting the stupid ones like “grumpy bear” or whatever names his evil sister could have come up with.

“Wait, what?” Boyd asked, still in shock and surprise because, obviously, he wasn’t even paying attention to the whole conversation.

Liam snorted at that, and it was so bizarre to Derek because his voice was definitely deeper.

Derek remembered Liam to be so young two years ago. Well, he was still young now, but... Now, he was _fifteen_. He seemed so different and would be sixteen in just a few days.

“I think you just scared him for life,” Laura laughed while Oliver who had been greeting the others with a handshake was now grabbing Erica’s luggage with Laura’s still in his other hand.

“Okay, then,” Oliver said and started walking towards the big wooden stairs. “Let’s show y’all your rooms.”


	2. B

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Warnings for this Chapter** : Mentioning of Suicide

[Tumblr](http://dyleon.tumblr.com/) | [Soundtrack](http://8tracks.com/dyleon/stray-wolf) | [Manips](http://dyleon.deviantart.com/gallery/55278504/Stray-Wolf-Covers)

 

 

_Dunbar’s, Beacon Hills, June 6, 11:51PM_

 

Derek’s room was the loft. It wasn’t the prettiest room, but it had a bed and Laura found it better than letting him sleep on a couch.

His sister really had tried her best to get the best way to organize the rooms; she’d known from Derek that Erica and Boyd would share one room, so she gave the guest room with the queen bed, where Derek would normally sleep at his visits, to them instead. The bed up in the loft was a double bed too, but Laura wanted to give the new guests something better than a dark loft and Derek had insisted, so it wasn’t really a big deal.

Even though the loft was probably the dirtiest room of Laura’s whole house– well, she at least had cleaned it a little for Derek, she had told– , he still found it better than his apartment in New York.

The longer he looked around the loft, it actually seemed to be a really comfortable– or at least for his standards. It was perfect to work in, probably soundproofed, so Derek could work on his songs even with Kira running and playing around downstairs.

It even had a small bathroom-like corner with a sink and a mirror.

It was a big room and therefore needed a lot of light, but it still only had one small bull’s eye window which Derek had to climb up a ladder to open and close it.

It was late when Derek went through the music sheets and papers for the concert. Music was one of his most important things in life, and that’s why he already had planned to conduct at the Beacon Hill High orchestra for this year’s summer festival.

New York was a huge city where you could get lost in the amount of young talents who wanted to get their big chance. Derek actually hadn’t really gotten far there, even after years he’d lived in New York. Maybe it was just Derek, being too bad as a conductor and songwriter for the average. He didn’t know.

The Beacon Hills High orchestra played at the summer festival every year. It wasn’t the world wide most known orchestra of course, but the festival surely was very popular around the area.

At least, it had been when Derek had been at high school, so it was an option.

After he’d went over everything for the concert again, he checked his phone once more; there were no messages or missed calls whatsoever, but he hadn’t expected anything else.

Marcus always gave up that quickly that Derek was not even going to bother. His so-called father usually only called around four times repeatedly before he would get that Derek wasn’t going to answer or call back.

When he saw that Jennifer still didn’t call him back, Derek wasn’t surprised either. The last weeks while she was gone, she had never answered a call from him. But it didn’t stop him from calling her every evening to tell her mailbox about his day anyway.

He’d never used to do that when she still had been by his side, so maybe it was time. Not necessarily because he wanted to get back together with her, although that would be the best scenario for him, personally, but because it was just that he couldn’t let it end the way it was now; with no goodbye, no nothing. Just like so many other people that had left in his life.

Derek went to his contacts on his phone to his most recent calls and for once, it wasn’t Jennifer’s number which was on top but Laura’s from when he called her at the airport. But not even the second number on the list was Jennifer. It was Marcus’ number and it reminded Derek once again of the call with Marcus he had at the airport in New York.

Right away, Derek deleted Marcus number off the timeline and selected Jennifer’s number. Not expecting to hear Jennifer’s real voice, he just waited until Jennifer’s pre-recorded message told him to leave a message after the tone.

The message that he left was as usual awkward, but the corners of his mouth still lifted just from the pretense of talking to her.

Quickly after he ended the message, the joy and fassade turned into an empty and odd feeling.

In the end, Jennifer was still gone.

Derek sighed, burying his face in his arms. He needed to get some fresh air right now. Sleep wouldn’t be an option for a while, he just knew, so he grabbed his zippo and a pack of cigarettes from his drawer in case fresh air wouldn’t be enough and headed downstairs.

When he got all the way down the first floor, Derek froze at the spot when he noticed a weak, bluish light coming from the couch.

“Oliver?” Derek asked as he stepped closer to the couch, enough to see muscled shoulders which could only be from Oliver. He almost asked why he was sleeping on the couch in the living room before he remembered that Laura was probably sleeping in the small guest room.

Laura and Oliver knew that Isaac couldn’t sleep in a small room because of his claustrophobia. And since the biggest room was already given away to Boyd and Erica, they had given Isaac their own room while Laura took the small bed in the guest room and Oliver the couch in the living room.

“Why are you still up?” Derek asked instead. Oliver had to get up early for his shift, but he had thought that Oliver’s shift wouldn’t start before two in the morning, and before that, he usually slept until only a few minutes before he had to head out.

Oliver – as jerky as he sometimes was – almost fell from the couch by how much he got frightened by Derek’s voice. “Whoa, you scared the heck out of me! Was that any use? What are you doing down here?”

“I’m just... going out for a walk at the coasts for a while,” Derek said quietly. “I thought your shift didn’t start until two?”

Oliver got up from the couch with a grunt and rubbed the back of his head, rubbing his way over to his right eye with his palm afterwards. “A workmate just texted me,” he said sleepily and yawned, eyes still full of sleep. “He’s coming to his shift a little later.”

“Which workmate?”

“Ah, just Scott.”

“You mean that ex-veterinarian guy?” Derek guessed. Scott had been hired a few months ago from what he knew. Oliver mostly told Derek every detail he could think of about all his co-firefighters at work since they were like family to him, and Derek actually had seen Scott on Oliver’s Instagram before.

“Yeah, him,” Oliver said, confirming Derek’s guess. “Seems like something’s with his girlfriend.”

“What girlfriend?” Derek asked, cocking an eyebrow at the other with a slight smirk. “Did you recently stop keeping me updated about everyone’s relationship status, or what?” he added jokingly. Derek wasn’t even kidding, though. Oliver had done that.

“I surely didn’t know a couple of weeks ago either,” Oliver laughed, but quickly tried to force it down as he remembered that everyone else was probably sleeping because his laugh always had been loud as heck. “Don’t even know her name.”

Derek just closed his eyes and shook his head at Oliver. Of course he wasn’t mad at Oliver for not telling him. Hell, it was even creepy that Oliver told him so much about his co-workers when Derek hadn’t even met any of them. “Anyway, I’m going out now. If you hear anyone at the backdoor later, that’s me.”

“Got it,” Oliver yawned and turned back to lying on the couch, placing his phone onto the glass table as Derek walked to the front door to grab his jacket. “I might not be there if you come back. Maybe I have to head out at midnight for Scott’s shift. Just keep the backdoor open at the best.”

Derek didn’t let that be told twice to him and headed straight to the backdoor to the garden which lead to the beaches behind the house. One step in front of the door, Derek stopped to put on his headphones and put his music on shuffle.

He always listened to music when he made his rounds whether it was in New York through the streets or here in Beacon Hills near the coast.

There weren’t any lights along the coast, but the full moon was big at the night sky, illuminating the beaches and making the water and waves reflect its light into every direction.

His phone just shuffled to “West Coast” as he almost reached the last stop of his walk; the beach which was directly at the lighthouse and border of city and had a cliff from where you could look miles out to the sea.

Derek sat down into the sand near to the feet of the cliff. To his right, the sand was covered in sharp rocks until the beach ended at the huge stone wall.

When he had been younger, he had never liked to sit at a spot where people could easily find him. He usually had gone to this place to exactly not be found and be on his own. This beach had been the perfect place to hide because it was so far off town.

And if anyone would still go to this place for any reasons, he had always sat behind some big rocks to ensure that he would be left alone; just like he was doing now.

Derek took out his zippo and a cigarette out of the pack, placing the cigarette right between his lips and lit it. Derek took a puff once it was burning and breathed in deep into his lungs and gave the smoke enough time to stay before he would force it out again.

He had just bought a new pack at the airport of Beacon Hills; it was going to be a long night here. He had time.

 

_Argent’s, Beacon Hills, June 6, 11:43PM_

 

Allison was focused on her papers when her dad came into her room. She barely had gotten through half of it, which was so dumb and frustrating and made her so _angry_.

“Hey,” Chris said gently, knocking at his daughter’s door which had been only ajar. “I brought you tea.”

“Thanks, Dad,” she replied and sighed, resting her head onto her hand. She was just exhausted and it felt like the walls around her would lean on her back. “Going through applications.”

“I can see that. How’s it going?”

“Good.” It came out of her like a lie and clearly, it was a lie. Chris noticed that.

“You don’t have to go through them now, you know?” he said as he placed the cup onto the table and nudged Allison’s shoulder softly. “It’s summer break and you still got a few weeks until the festival.”

“I need to work on them _someday_.”

“Allison, you know, I can always talk with you if you need me to.”

 _What am I supposed to say?_ Allison thought. It hadn’t been a week since her mother had died, but today, they had already picked which casket to bury her in and it all seemed just too sudden. It suddenly felt so real. Too real.

“I can’t believe that she’s actually gone,” she said, not looking away from her paper, focused on them as her hand pressed the pencil in her hand harder down onto the paper.

“She made her decision.”

“What decision? To abandon us?” Allison blurted out, surprising herself by how angry and broken she sounded.

Chris didn’t say anything at all for a moment, letting the words of his daughter settle in before he finally spoke up. “Don’t say that.”

“But she did,” Allison gritted out, tears starting to build in the corners of her eyes, which made her even angrier because that wasn’t her. She’s not like that kind of girl. She’s strong. She knew her mother was suffering of migraine and was most likely to break one day, but this was _not_ her. “She left us without a care in the world. She didn’t even leave us a letter. She just–” Allison cut herself off and forced any other words back before they could escape her lips, sounding like she would swallow down something disgusting and actually feeling that way.

She knew it was wrong to say all those things and that it was just all stupid teenage thinking, but at that moment, she just didn’t care about it. If she was honest, she was glad that her mom hadn’t written a last note. The only things that were listed on a last note usually were all the things you could have done to not make the death of a person happen.

 _Why had she have to be such a perfectionist? Why couldn’t she just have been able to ignore things that were not going the way she’d wanted or even just_ dirty _?_

All those question were running around Allison’s head before she said: “I’m sorry. You didn’t come to hear all of this.”

“Don’t be. It’s okay.”

“That… That’s not me,” she added quietly, just needing to say that.

“I know,” Chris only replied and sighed. As he breathed out, it seemed as if had just released all his worry he’d kept inside, starting new. “How about you call Scott?”

“It’s almost midnight and he’s out with Stiles.”

“So what?” Chris said, shrugged and rubbed her shoulder, before he slowly walked towards the door. “You’re his girlfriend and you’re not doing well. Hell, you’re even crying! If he says no, tell him that Chris Argent officially canceled your wedding.”

“I’m not crying,” Allison said, rubbing her red eyes. She couldn’t help herself but laugh at herself at that. “But you’re right.”

Allison dialed Scott’s number as soon as her dad shut the door behind himself.

It was good to hear Scott’s voice.

 

_Stray Wolf Bar, Beacon Hills, June 6, 11:36PM_

 

Finding time to hang with Scott had been more difficult lately than Stiles had thought. They weren’t in high school anymore, but their time seemed to be even less available for both of them.

 _College_ , Stiles thought. _I still can’t really believe that I’ll be going to freaking_ college _next year._

“Told you it wasn’t too late,” Stiles huffed as he trotted towards the front door and stepped inside the bar.

“I’m glad we could find time to play in town again, man,” Scott said, sitting down on their usual place after he removed his instrument case from his back. “Sorry that we can’t hang so much lately. My job’s been keeping me busy and Allison–”

“Dude,” Stiles said, instantly cutting Scott right off because he seriously couldn’t hear that name out of Scott’s mouth anymore. He dropped onto a chair next to Scott and leaned his violin case onto the bar counter in front of his feet. “Don’t apologize for spending time with your _girlfriend_ when you’re off work.”

“But you’re my brother from another mother, man,” Scott protested.

“That, I am,” Stiles snorted, his laugh quickly slacked off, “but seriously, you have a girlfriend and a job. That’s good for you. And your girlfriend’s going through hard times. I’m not complaining.”

“Not?” Scott asked, his face twisted into confusion, clearly not convinced.

“Well, now that you’re asking, maybe the whole talking about how things are good between you and Allison which reminds me of how fucking _lonely_ I am does, but only maybe.”

“C’mon, someone’s gonna want you one day,” Scott scoffed, emphasizing the last two words in such a way that it sounded like the biggest miracle on earth itself to Stiles, which was almost offensive. Scott obviously was good at emphasizing words. Good for him.

“As the sheriff’s kid? Yeah, sure. Sounds like the jackpot,” he replied dryly.

“Then I’m gonna set you up with someone who hasn’t got a problem with that. There has to be someone,” Scott offered, making Stiles already want to curl up and die of embarrassment.

“How do you wanna check if they have no problem with being with the sheriff’s kid?” Stiles asked anyway, although he knew the answer was going to be ridicules. “‘ _Hi, this is the sheriff’s kid! Wanna have fun with him?_ ’”

“Ha ha, you know that my pickup-lines are better than that,” Scott said and discretely pointed to a table in the back corner. “How about I introduce you to that girl over there? She seems single…,” he said and pointed to another table when Stiles hadn’t answered, “or this guy back there. I mean, since you like dudes as well, which I’m still totally okay with, by the way.”

“Oh, god, cut it out already,” Stiles groaned. “I didn’t come out to you, so you could tell me that you’re okay with it every time you mention me with another dude.”

“But I am!” Scott insisted. “In fact, I’m bi too.”

Stiles turned his head to Scott, cocking his eyebrows. He hadn’t really expected Scott to confess something like that right now, but on the other hand he wasn’t even surprised, so his mimic literally stayed blank. “Your point?”

“No idea.”

“Greatest wingman ever...”

“No, really, I mean it,” Scott throws in, remembering where he’d been going with all of this in the first place, “I’m _totally_ gonna–”

“You totally gonna what?” a female voice asked. “What did I miss?”

“Hey, Lyds!” Scott greeted Lydia who had just gotten behind the counter. “Just talked about how to set up someone with Stiles.”

“Answer’s ‘never’,” she deadpanned, throwing her strawberry blond hair over her shoulder. “He’s the sheriff’s kid and a total loser. No one would be that stupid.”

“See what I mean? Lydia agrees!” Stiles said to Scott, but turned right back to Lydia as he realised what she had just said. “Wait, what’s that supposed to mean? I’m not a _total_ loser. I’m very talented in many things, all right?”

“Name one.”

“I’m really good at playing the violin.”

“Another one.”

“Okay, that’s cheating.”

At that, Lydia made a noise that sounded like a mixture between a sigh and a snort because, obviously, Stiles had lost this conversation. As usual. “You guys wanna buy drinks now, or what? This bar’s not making money if you’re just warming the seats like on all of your lacrosse games.”

“My asthma was way worse back then, okay?” Scott remarked.

“I wasn’t talking to you, Scott.”

“Excuse me?” Stiles protested. “This bar isn’t making any money either if you’re sassy to your customers like that.” But he still couldn’t really find words that would defend his bad lacrosse playing skills. Scott had an excuse. Stiles not.

After all, Scott’s asthma really had been worse back then. Stiles wouldn’t even have believed if anyone had told him that Scott would be working as a firefighter once in his life.

Stiles just decided to order a drink with a sigh of defeat. It took quite a long time for him to settle with one drink – since there were _so many_ options for people that were under twenty one – , so he ordered a coke in the end.

“Of course a coke,” Lydia huffed, “It’s not like there are many drinks I’m allowed to serve you.”

“Hey, we already are of age,” Stiles said.

“You certainly are, but the law still says that you’re not servable,” Lydia replied, annoyed by Stiles’ comment. “God, and stop pouting.”

“I’m not pouting,” Stiles said, pouting. He propped himself up on the counter with both of his elbows now, putting on the most charming face he could make, although he knew that it wouldn’t work at Lydia anyway, but he at least wanted to try. “How about I’m getting a vodka shot?”

Lydia cocked an eyebrow at Stiles for a moment. “Well, if you’re already asking me to break the law, you can at least tell me if you drove here to prevent a double crime.”

Stiles shook his head. “I walked the whole day around town with Scott.”

Lydia hesitated for a moment, mostly because saying yes could be fatal to her job, but she just shrugged and turned to Scott. “And you? Wanna be rebel too?”

“No. Just water for me. I gotta go to shift tomorrow, so I can’t drink heavy stuff.”

“And by ‘tomorrow’ you actually mean in,” Lydia stopped to look at the clock on the wall, “fifteen minutes?” Lydia asked, turning back to Scott. “Shouldn’t you be well rested for your shift?” Her arms were crossed as she shook her head, making tsk-sounds.

“Hey, I’m sure there won’t be any fires any time soon,” Scott scoffed, waving her down. “A couple hours of sleepiness won’t kill a bug.”

“Already feeling safer with you in Beacon Hills’ fire department,” Lydia snorted. Scott rolled his eyes at her. “Drinks will come in a bit. Be right back,” she said, walking a few steps to the right and disappeared behind a bunch of shelves with bottles only in them.

Stiles turned back to Scott as soon as she was gone, elbows resting on the counter’s surface. Now he at least could speak up without getting a sassy line tossed at his face. “You played better than I’ve expected today. I didn’t know you had time to practice while you were on shift.”

“What do you think we’re doing at the station all day while we’re waiting for a catastrophe to happen?” Scott huffed. “Sitting around and staring at the wall?”

Stiles was totally wrong about the sassy line part. He hated _everyone_.

“Well, maybe... I don’t know, man. That’s kinda why I’m asking, you know?” Stiles said just at the moment Lydia placed their drinks on the counter.

“And no,” Lydia sighed, “you’re not getting these drinks free of charge just because I know you from my school days.”

“But you still serve us alcohol,” Stiles said.

“I can still change my mind you, you know?”

Stiles and Scott quickly took their drinks at that, both thanking her. Scott only took one sip out of his glass while Stiles took the whole shot at once, making a face at the strong taste and coughed several times.

Lydia on the other hand wasn’t even nice enough to force down her laugh and pretend that she wasn’t enjoying it.

As Scott put down his glass, he was just about to say something, but got interrupted by Taylor Swift’s voice which sang out of his jeans pocket.

Lydia frowned at that. “Seriously?” she asked, still partially laughing because of Stiles’ coughing.

“What? T-Swift’s an amazing performer,” Stiles said as he felt like his throat wasn’t burning anymore. “Just because you’re most probably the only person that can’t relate to any of her songs, doesn’t mean they’re bad.”

Scott yanked out his phone and shushed both of them, which Stiles found very rude to be honest. He tried to defend his music taste right now, okay? “It’s Allison,” Scott said as he looked at the screen.

Stiles just shrugged as Scott turned to look at him, still not answering. “What could she want? She knows I’m with you tonight.”

“I don’t know,” Scott said at the same time as Lydia looked up in excitement and said, “Say hi to her for me.”

Scott turned away and covered his mouth while he spoke with Allison.

It bothered Stiles a little. This was supposed to be bro-night, Scott-Stiles-alone-time, not Stiles-Scott-and-Allison-at-the-other-line-of-the-phone-night. But he couldn’t possibly say that because Allison had just lost her mom and Stiles was literally the expert on knowing how much that sucked. After all, it wasn’t a bro-alone time anyway since Lydia was there, so he dropped it completely.

It took a while until Stiles could hear Scott humming twice and ending the call with a sweet “love you too”. He turned to Scott, raising his eyebrows curiously, but uninterested in the same time.

Scott kept quiet for a while as if the following words would be devastating to Stiles. And he was right. “She wants to see me.”

“Why? What’s the matter?” Lydia asked.

“She’s not doing well,” Scott replied.

“Wait, are you actually leaving me hanging right now?” Stiles mocked and no, he didn’t give a shit if he sounded like a hypocrite right now because he hadn’t expected that. He’d expected that she would tell Scott that he’d left something that she couldn’t identify and therefore ask if he still needed it at her place or something. _Anything_ really, but not to get to her although Scott obviously had bro-time which he couldn’t have for ages.

“I’m really sorry, dude, but she needs me right now. We can postpone this to after my shift?” Scott asked while he was texting, probably one of his co-firefighters. When he looked up again at Stiles with these eyes which looked like the ones of a sad puppy, he just couldn’t say no to that face. It was so unfair.

“Fine,” Stiles sighed and threw his hands into the air.

“You’re the best!” Scott shouted and jumped up from the chair, giving Stiles a bro-hug and running off like the traitor he was. “See y’all on Sunday!”

Lydia barely just watched over the whole scene, lifting her eyebrows at Stiles after a few seconds. “You do know that you still have to pay for his drink, right?"

Stiles sighed and pulled out his wallet right away. Luckily water wasn’t too expensive.

Now that Scott was gone, there was no reason to stay at the bar any longer.

He paid for both drinks and simply left. He could head to the place where he usually hung out when he was alone and didn’t want to go home. He was considering it as he walked towards the exit of the bar.

The moon was shining brightly up the sky when he got into the dark streets of town. Not a single star was seen in the sky, drowned out by the street lights. Stiles didn’t really like being in the streets of Beacon Hills at night. It wasn’t really dangerous, but he always felt watched over.

Maybe it felt that way because of all these drunk teens on the streets, especially when it was summer vacation where some of these kids obviously didn’t want to waste any seconds of it.

But Stiles really couldn’t say anything against it since he had used to be one of these kids not a long time ago too. But at least he had gotten into the woods to get drunk with Scott and hadn’t bothered people in town.

He mostly just went to the forest because he couldn’t risk to be seen drunk in town when his father had been, and still _was_ , the sheriff.

Steadily, Stiles made his way to the outcast of town and walked all the way to the farthest beach of Beacon Hills. Stiles had never really seen anyone at this beach. That probably had been why he’d been coming to that one since his mom had died. He just went there and played violin from time to time.

The beach he usually goes to was not far away from the cliff where the lighthouse was.

When Stiles got close at the water, he took his violin out of its case and lined it up between his chin and shoulder, making a few strokes to warm up. Once he had started playing, the song came from his hands and instrument perfectly.

Although Stiles knew a lot of songs by heart since he was a street musician, he only played the same song when he played at the beach. The song actually was the first violin piece he’d learned. He’d learned it from his mom.

 

_Suicide Bay, Beacon Hills, June 7, 0:01PM_

 

It was nostalgic to be in Beacon Hills again and brought back a lot of memories. While he was sitting in the sand, Derek remembered the times when he’d played basketball through the school halls or the bickering with his siblings.

Whenever he’d needed a break from his five siblings, he had usually gone to the lighthouse which was just on top of the cliff and sat at the ledge and stared out to the sea. But on other days, Derek had come to this beach and sat down in the sand, doing nothing but listening to music through his headphones like he was doing now.

He hadn’t used to smoke back then, of course; this habit had only come later after he had moved to Marcus.

This beach just had been one of his favorite places in the whole town when he was younger.

These days had used to be so simple; the days where he’d been a teenager in the basketball team at school, wanted to become a pro-basketball player and hadn’t had any other problems other than his annoying siblings.

He hadn’t even thought about becoming anything musical, even with the influence of his very musical family. He just had been too stubborn to learn an instrument like his other siblings because basketball had been everything he’d ever cared about before he had met this one girl at school who could play the cello so well, that Derek instantly had fallen in love with her and begged his mom to give him piano lessons to impress cello girl afterwards.

Derek was just grabbing his fifth cigarette as he noticed a sound not that far away from him. Fortunately, his phone was just switching songs and therefore totally silent, otherwise he wouldn’t have noticed a thing of the violin.

He took out his headphones and paused the track to hear where the source of the music was coming.

It was quite strange for Derek to hear a stringed instrument right at the spot as he thought about his first crush.

He didn’t even have to look long until he found the boy who was standing in the sand about a hundred meters away from him. The boy looked around Isaac’s age, so eighteen. He was wearing a plaid shirt and blue jeans from what Derek could see.

He’d never heard the song the boy was playing, Derek noticed. The melody seemed pretty simple, but still very harmonic and really well written. It was just a quirk of Derek to analyse every new song that he heard; just like his mom.

After all, years had gone by since Derek had been at this beach, so he couldn’t really expect that no one would have found his “secret place” along the years.

 _At least someone musical found it_ , Derek thought with a slight smile as he looked at the boy. The violinist hadn’t spotted him yet, so Derek decided not to change that. Maybe this boy thought it was his secret place as well. In that case, he didn’t want to take it from him.

Derek took his not even half finished cigarette out and flicked it into the wet sand. The boy didn’t even notice him as he walked right past him and headed home.


	3. C

[Tumblr](http://dyleon.tumblr.com/) | [Soundtrack](http://8tracks.com/dyleon/stray-wolf) | [Manips](http://dyleon.deviantart.com/gallery/55278504/Devious-Folder)

 

 

_Stilinski’s, Beacon Hills, June 9, 8:45AM_

 

Stiles was staring at his reflection inside the mirror, hands clenching around the edge of the sink.

“You ready, kiddo? I said breakfast’s ready,” his dad’s voice shouted from downstairs. Stiles’ shoulders and head went dull as he sighed into the sink.

He didn’t even make an attempt to shout back since it always ended up with his dad not hearing a word he said, so he would be forced to scream downstairs about four to five times, which he couldn’t take with his headache right now.

His hand reached out for the mirror in front of him and opened the cabinet to take out his pills. Like always,he made a sound like he was about to throw up after he’d gotten these pills down.

If there was a thing Stiles really hated besides Jackson Whittemore, it would be swallowing pills.

Every time he had them in his mouth, his throat rebelled with swallowing them down. It was like a gag reflex, only worse.

But that was exactly what these pills were preventing him to do; they were there to make him keep things  _inside_.

Stiles looked up into the cabinet, tons of boxes and pills disorderly standing inside. He took his pills, threw them next to the others inside the cabinet and closed it, running to the bathroom door.

“I’m coming!” he yelled as he walked down the stairs and to the dining table where his dad was waiting. “Sorry, I was caught in my thoughts, is all.”

“No worries, Stiles. A few days ago, you weren’t even up before I went to my shift,” his dad huffed as Stiles flopped down onto his seat. The sheriff pointed at his son’s plate which already had bacon and eggs in it, “Eat.”

Stiles started eating at command.

His dad had a point there. Four days ago, Stiles hadn’t even eaten breakfast and skipped right to lunch, mostly to sleep because he literally had went to bed the morning of the next day.

He usually went to bed that late whenever he was visiting the beach at the lighthouse and played until who-knew-which time.

Stiles actually remembered the last night he’d visited that beach very strangely.

For some reasons it smelled like something had been burning or smoking. He hadn’t really seen anything different there, so it just could have been his mind playing tricks to him.

The days after, well, at these days, he had managed to force himself to take his sleeping pills for once and had gone to bed at least before the other day would have started.

“So,” his dad started, clearing his throat, “what’re your plans for today?”

“Ah, you know…,” Stiles said, stopping to poke around in his egg, “Going out with Scott since he’s back from shift and making money on the street.”

“Thank god, I know you two are street musicians,” his dad snorted.

They kept eating for a while until his dad headed off to his shift. As soon as his dad was out the door, Stiles shot Scott a message.

 

**You ready?**

**Same spot as always**

**[ scott ]; Yeah**

**[ scott ]; Meet u in a few**

 

_Monalisa Bistro, Beacon Hills, June 9, 1:30PM_

 

The sun was shining down upon Derek’s head and the squawks of seagulls were coming from the beach near them. With him at the table were his friends Isaac, Erica and Boyd. None of them were saying a thing and just waited silently for their order to arrive.

The first week in Beacon Hills was almost over, but it felt like a month already. Beacon Hills had changed so much. There were so many new things Derek had seen throughout the week. He’d never thought that Beacon Hills would ever become a place people liked to go to on their vacation.

He surely did, but that was something entirely different.

They had just gotten back from shopping in the new mall where Derek had spent his time sitting on the bench they had chosen as a meeting place for when they got done.

Erica and Boyd had gone to the souvenirs while Isaac had headed straight towards the clothing shops.

Isaac had bought quite a lot more than Derek had expected he would. For the fact that Isaac only had the money Derek had given him before, he’d managed to fill three shopping bags.

“Oh, man, that was the third false alarm already!” Boyd groaned after another waiter passed their table – of course without having _their_ food –, pulling Derek out of his daydream and into the present.

Erica petted Boyd’s shoulder to soothe him while Isaac snorted at the other side of the table, “What am _I_ supposed to say? I just ordered a pizza and it still doesn’t seem like it’s coming.”

Wherever Derek looked, there was not a single empty table. It’d been kind of clear from the moment they’d decided to sit here that they would have had to wait an extremely long time. If there had been any other empty tables, they definitely wouldn’t have picked the one they were sitting at right now because it was the only table that didn’t have any shade from the sun.

Derek was pretty sure if he’d decided to touch the black of his hair right now, he would probably burn his hand. The heat wasn’t nice at all.

At such hot days like today, Derek just wished that it would be night already, so he could sit calmly and without a care in the world in the sand of the beach, listen to music and smoke. He’d been visiting the beach where he’d seen that one violinist a lot recently.

Whenever he was too exhausted to sleep and felt too much pressure on his shoulders– so basically he visited that place every single night since he had gotten to this damn town –, he would make his way to the beach at the lighthouse.

Strangely, but maybe not too strangely, the violinist Derek had met on the first day seemed to have been swallowed up by the earth, which was very unfortunate if he was honest. The boy really had talent.

Derek really wished more of those talented violinists would have enrolled for the music festival. His orchestra had way too few violinists. Isaac as their only violinist was very unsatisfying. Not that Isaac played bad, hell, if he told Isaac that, he probably wouldn’t stop pouting for the rest of the vacation. Isaac really _was_ good, but even Isaac knew that he couldn’t play the violin solo. They needed another violinist.

He swore that if he had a second chance to talk to that violinist again, he’d take it in the hopes of getting him into the orchestra. But that was almost impossible when he didn’t even know who it was and what they look like. He hadn’t seen much because of how dark it had been.

Of course, he had first assumed that the violinist was male based on the clothes and the short hair, but in the end, it wouldn’t mean anything since literally everyone could be wearing jeans and have a short haircut.

“Are you sure they haven’t forgotten about our orders?” Boyd asked after a while again. He surely wanted his – as he had called it – _original Italian seafood pasta_.

At the back table of the restaurant, a street musician showed up and began playing.. Derek’s head slowly turned toward the violinist.

 _Maybe it’s the one from the first night_ , he thought.

But before Derek’s head was nearly turned, he stopped in the movement and pointed his gaze back to his friends, disappointed.

It wasn’t the one he was hoping for. He could just hear it. This violinist wasn’t bad, but not as good as the one at the beach. Derek had a lot knowledge for stringed instruments since his first love was an expert, and the violinist from the last night had something in their playing. Something that his own mother had when she’d played the violin.

“Haven’t you noticed these other billion people who were all here before us?” Derek said to Boyd’s question. He didn’t mean to snarl at Boyd the way he did. It was just that the heat around his head and the fact that his orchestra was showing holes _and_ the hunger were all giving him a headache. Boyd hopefully would get that. He always did.

“Maybe we should have picked the Mexican, after all,” Boyd sighed, propping his head up with his hand.

Boyd really had been determined to go to an Italian restaurant before and actually had been the reason why they were sitting here right now, so of course Boyd would be disappointed to see that it took so long.

Luckily, Erica always knew how to lift her boyfriend’s mood. “How about we just use the time while we’re waiting to discuss how the orchestra’s doing so far,” she said. No one said anything, but no one disagreed, so Erica just continued; after all she was Derek’s co-conductor and manager in those kind of things. “I think we all know where the problem lies at the moment.”

“I know, I know. Too few violinists,” Derek sighed, brandishing with his hand.

“Exactly,” Erica agreed. “No offense, Isaac, but with you alone, the violin part of the song would be completely pointless. The violin part is an ensemble voice already. You’d be drowned out by the other instruments instantly.”

Something in Derek made him almost cring at Erica’s choice of words. For some reason, he didn’t like it. It reminded him too much of– _No._

Suddenly, a voice in his head turned the thought down instantaneously.

Don’t remember. Forget, forget, _forget_.

“What am I supposed to do?” Isaac scoffed before Derek could say anything. Derek snapped out of it right at that moment. For once, he was actually thankful for Isaac’s uncontrolled mouth. “Should we just ask Sexy McHandsome over there to join the team or what?” Isaac said, pointing at the street musician with his right arm.

First Derek wanted to roll his eyes for, not only Isaac’s comment, but pointing at someone so obviously in public. But then he decided to just turn around and look at the violinist himself since he was the only one at the table who couldn’t see the violinist because he was sitting with his back turned towards them and obviously hadn’t anything else to do than looking at the people Isaac claimed to be hot.

The violinist was male, but that didn’t exclude him from Isaac’s hit list since Isaac was pan. To be honest, this guy was even most likely to be on Isaac’s radar; Derek had gained a what-Isaac-would-do radar since Isaac moved to his place; he knew.

The guy had slightly curled hair, a sympathetic, wide smile and if you looked closely, you could see that his jaw was a little uneven and…

 _And_ …

This guy was Scott, Oliver’s co-worker.

It had to be him. Derek had seen enough picture of him.

Scott McCall. The newest firefighter of Beacon Hills, the one Oliver liked so much because of his dumb fart jokes.

His eyes still lingered at the guy in the back, startled. “That’s Scott,” he said.

“You know that guy?” Erica asked, raising her eyebrows at Derek. So did the others.

“He’s… one of Oliver’s co-workers.”

“So Sexy McHandsome is not just hot, but also a firefighter? Wow, next time you have connections to people like him, you gotta tell me first.”

“God, stop calling him that! He’s Oliver’s co-worker, for Christ’s sake!” Derek hissed. It was almost painful to see that his hissing didn’t have an effect on Isaac anymore because Isaac even freaking _chuckled_ right into his face.

“Well, Isaac has a point there,” Erica said, earning surprised and confused looks from not only Boyd and Derek, but also Isaac before she explained herself, “I mean the getting him in the team thing. Not the hotty Mc _Whatever_ you said, Isaac.”

“You should go ask him to join the orchestra, man.”

Derek pointed to himself, frowning at Boyd’s suggestion. “Me?”

“Well, yes. If you two know each other, then it’d be better for you to ask,” Boyd said, only seconds before he added, “while we’re waiting for the food.” The stares of his friends literally drilled and daggered into him now.

There he was, then. One second he was waiting on a table for food with his friends and in next the second he was getting up from his chair, running his hand through his hair, already getting red and flushed before he even started making his steps towards Scott.

He hated having conversations, especially with strangers. Scott wasn’t entirely a stranger, but they had never seen each other in person. Derek wasn’t even sure if Oliver had shown Scott any pictures of him.

Halfway to the musician, Derek looked back to his friends at the table again. Everyone looked at him, Boyd nodding at him and Isaac holding both of his thumbs up next to his face like an idiot.

With a sigh, Derek turned around, running his hand over his entire face before he would go through his hair once more and tried to forget that there was an audience.

He approached Scott with a ducked head, hands in his jeans pockets.

Scott apparently thought that he was taking a tip out of his pocket as Derek pulled his hand out to offer a hand. The sudden hand startled Scott and he stopped playing immediately.

But the surprising thing was, once Scott had put his violin aside, he still could hear a violin playing somewhere near him. There were two violins as it looked like.

“Are you Scott?” Derek asked, ignoring the fact that there was a second violin. He surely knew that he was Scott – Hell, he could even see the one tattoo on his left arm –, but he just wouldn’t know how to start this conversation otherwise.

Scott looked like a lost puppy for a moment, but as soon as his eyes met Derek’s hand, he reached out for it, looking up to Derek with a genuine smile. “Do I know you?”

“Well, I hope,” Derek said as their hands shook, an awkward smile on his face. “I’m Oliver’s brother in law.”

Scott’s smile brightened right away, his hand gripping Derek’s firmer. “Oh, so you’re Miguel!”

Derek almost spit at Scott at how hard he snorted, and his awkward smile surely did get more awkward. “No, the other one,” he corrected as their hands separated again.

“Oh, you’re Derek then,” Scott said, laughing. “Weird, you look more like a Miguel to me.”

It was almost – no, it _was_ pathetic how much Derek tried to make his following laugh sound real. If that was making this guy already laughing, then he definitely can see where Oliver had gotten all of his new and lame dad jokes from.

Oliver had been telling him all those fart and poop jokes that he’d heard from Scott lately. Oliver couldn’t even tell the jokes without cracking up in the middle of it.

The fact that he even did crack up would be impossible unless Oliver was literally five.

How the hell should he even start this orchestra topic up? He barely knew Scott in person for seconds. He couldn’t just ask “ _Hey, these guys on the table back there are my best friends and were coincidentally having a orchestra and could really need a violinist._ ”

Then Derek did exactly that.

“You see these guys back at the table there?” Derek asked, turning around and out of the way of view as he pointed to his friends who started to wave as soon as they noticed Derek was pointing at them.

“You mean these wavy guys?” Scott asked.

“Yeah,” Derek answered, turning back to Scott. “We’re part of the band that’s going to play at this year’s summer festival. And… well, we kind of are in a lack of violinists lately.”

Scott looked as if his words weren’t making any sense before Derek could visually see that his words settled into Scott’s head. “So, you mean… _me_?”

“Unless you don’t want to of course.”

“No, no, that’s not it!” Scott insisted, waving with his hands so much, he almost dropped his instrument. “It’d be awesome to be a part of the summer festival, but…,” he stopped, looking past Derek’s shoulder over to a completely other street.

Derek turned to where Scott was looking as well, seeing the other violinist he’d heard as he started the conversation with Scott.

The boy was around Scott’s age as well, wearing a red plaid shirt and blue jeans just like…

_Is that the guy from…?_

“Just let me call my partner real quick,” Scott said and was already placing a hand next to his mouth, cutting into Derek’s thought, “Hey, buddy! Come over here for a sec!”

Derek watched the other boy as he signed in question at Scott. Scott ultimately just waved him over here, so he crossed the street, walking straight towards them.

Derek didn’t even notice he was staring until the boy shot him a frown, at which he stopped right at the spot.

“What’s up?” the boy asked.

“That’s Derek,” Scott said. “He’s the brother of one of my workmates.”

“Hey,” Derek said as he held out his hand, feeling strangely odd. He had only seen two violinists after the first night he’d seen that one violinist at the beach, but this boy right in front of him matched the pattern almost perfectly. The only thing he didn’t know was matching was the boy’s playing.

“Hey,” the boy said, hesitant with answering the offered hand. “I’m Stiles,” he said after he decided to take Derek’s hand anyway.

Derek didn’t mean to, but his eyebrows still lifted up a little at the strange and unusual name.

“Ah, long story simply put, I didn’t like my real name,” Stiles simple said, pulling his hand back, waving it off.

Derek only lifted his head, understanding.

“So what does he want?” Stiles asked his friend.

“As it looks like is he one if the people that play at the music festival and could use us."

“ _Us_?” Derek asked in confusion. His friends only had sent him over here to get Scott into the team and not–

_But this could be the boy from the night._

“Er, I mean… Yes, of course you two can join,” Derek corrected. He just knew that he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself for not letting him join if that boy was to turn out as the boy from that night at the beach.

Stiles hummed while he clearly had a thinking process going on in his head. But again, Derek couldn’t risk a no. He’d gone to the beach only to see that boy again and if it was this boy, then he’d take that risk to get him into the team.

“It’s a good way to get your name around as an artist,” Derek said before Stiles could anything.

“Man, I don’t know…,” Stiles said. “I don’t know if I can do it.”

“Are you kidding me, dude?” Scott said as he nudged Stiles’ shoulder. “You could get your big chance to get out there!”

“There’s no need for any of you to join. Do as you please,” Derek said, but he was lying. “But just in case you guys wanna join; here.” Derek grabbed into his shirt pocket and pulled out one of the business cards Erica had made for him and which he’d thought that he’d never have use of them. “Next rehearsal is already tomorrow, so if I see you tomorrow, that’d be great.”

Derek really felt like a major asshamster, but it was enough for both of them to take a card.

Stiles and Scott looked down to each of their cards before Stiles looked up to Derek. “We’ll see. But thanks for the offer anyway.”

And at that, Derek just nodded before he headed back to his friends at the table while the two musicians made their own way somewhere else.

“Wow, you seemed very determined to get that other one into the orchestra,” Isaac mocked as soon as Derek got onto the table. “Much hot, eh?”

“Oh, cut it out.”


End file.
